The Old Man
by LordFrieza
Summary: Diana has returned to the League after being gone for so long.  There are still feelings between her and Bruce, but can they ever be together?  Add in Selina and Bruce's psycho son and you have an intense story set in the Future League of Batman Beyond.
1. Chapter 1

**(AN: This is an answer to a challenge made on the Batmanwonderwoman Forum. It is set in the Batman Beyond universe and Diana has just returned to man's world. It will be a BMWW story, but along the way there will be twists and turns. Enjoy it.)**

_**The Old Man (Prompt challenge) (Preview)**_

The entire Watchtower falls into a hush as Wonder Woman walks down the hall. Whispers fall all around the amazon as she strolls toward the original founders meeting room. She walks inside and sees familiar faces.

"Diana." Clark says as he smiles at her.

"Kal, how's everything?" Diana asks as if she had never been away in the first place.

"Stable for the moment." Clark says as he looks at the other members sitting at the table. Diana looks around at Shayera who has gained a little gray in her hair. J'onn looks the same, but then again he most likely will age even slower than Kal. John looks older, but the ring is keeping his body strong and fit. She looks toward Bruce's chair and feels a slight pang of grief. The man was stubborn, but when she heard that he had to drop the mission. She wished that she would have remained in man's world if for nothing else than to be there as a friend.

Another head pops into the room and a man dressed in a black trench coat and wearing a strange looking gas mask walks in.

"More trouble going on in the undertowns. The clones know that Luthor the second put genetic defects into them. They are rallying into a fighting force. We may have less than two days." The man says.

"Dar..." Superman begins before the man holds up his hand.

"Stuff it. I've got to get back to Blüdhaven." The man says as he turns and leaves.

"Seems familiar." Diana says as she watches him leave.

"Granted. He acts quite a bit like Batman." Clark says. Seconds later another dark figure steps into the room. He walks toward Clark and stairs the man of steel down.

"Gotham is not a meta playground." Terry growls as he looks at Clark.

"Look... No one meant for the newest version of the injustice gang to end up there." Clark begins before a well placed Bat Glare stops him.

"Gotham. Is. Not. A. Meta. Playground!" Terry growls harder and slams his fist down on the table.

"I've spent the last thirty six hours gathering up criminals that your party pals let out. And since you couldn't manage to hold on your own rogue gallery I've been force to stop chasing after Inque and apprehend Lex Jr for you. By the way... This is what he was in Gotham to do!" Terry shouts as he throws a file down on the table.

"Batman calm down." John says before a glare from Terry shuts him up.

"Calm down nothing! Warhawk is in the hospital because everything got out of hand! Inque nearly killed him because this became priority! On top of that Luthor II was there to buy information off of Inque. It seems that she had managed to find sentive files from the old cadmus files. Files that include updated information about the metro and watchtower. Now let me say this one more time. Gotham is not a meta playground. Keep your enemies out of Gotham, and stay out of there as well!" Terry shouts before he turns and storms out.

John and Shayera quickly get up and head out. Clark nods and then looks at Diana who is confused.

"Warhawk is their son." Clark says.

"Oh, Oh Hera, I hope he's alright." Diana says.

"If Batman knows about him, then he is. For him to be a hospital it means that he's in one that no one except for the league knows exist." Clark says before he sits down.

"Speaking of which... The new Batman sure seems a lot like..." She begins before Clark raises a hand.

"He is a lot like Bruce. Diana a lot has happened, and to be honest this is something that you should talk to Bruce about." Clark almost laughs at himself for that statement. "We both know he won't talk about it though. Look... It's not my place to talk about it, and I won't, but you really should see Bruce." Clark says as he shuts off the monitor.

Diana looks toward J'onn who also nods and then walks out of the room.

"I can't... We didn't part on good terms." She says as she looks at the floor.

"I know. You do know what happened a few nights before right?" Clark asks.

"No... I... I was too hurt to find out." She says as she stands there in shame.

"The Joker had kidnapped Tim. He had tortured him until Tim finally broke. When Bruce found him... It wasn't pretty Diana. Believe me Bruce didn't mean the things he said. He never once stopped thinking about you." Clark says as he begins to walk out.

Diana stands there for a few minutes as the sentence soaks in. Bruce's family had been hurt, and his lashing out was a way of him dealing with the pain. Adding more salt to the wound is the fact that he still thought about her and for Clark to know it meant that he had talked about her. She shakes her head as she prepares to go out into the halls. She loved Bruce. She really did, but whatever time they would have had together was gone by now. She would go and be his friend, but most likely he would reject her. She left him. She left everyone and the Batman didn't deal with those he care for leaving him. No... She would start over again and try to get past that part of her life.

(Batcave)

Bruce grabs his chest as he looks at the video from Terry's cowl. There is Diana. Diana, his Diana finally came back. He shook his head and looked again. It had been so long since he had seen her. For a moment a flash of youth flooded his old blue eyes, but his body reminded him of his age. Slowly he forces himself to sit down.

"That time is over." he says to Ace as the large dog lays beside him.

(Watchtower - Training room)

Diana stops as she hears training and looks in to see the man called Dar fighting against the new Batman. The both of them are in peak physical condiction. She watches as Dar manages to flip over the Bat and grabs his shoulders as he does. The action is followed through until the second Batman finds himself slammed against the wall.

"Do not speak of my mother again." Dar says as he grabs his trenchcoat and heads outside.

Diana looks to see tuffs of dark blond hair sticking up from under the mask and the man stops to look at her.

"Diana of Themyscira. Wonder Woman one of the original founders of the Justice League. If you are going to tell me that training like that isn't accepted in the League then go ahead. I'm a part time member. Certain rules don't apply to me." Dar says.

"No, I was going to say that you shouldn't have waited for that one opening." She says as she smiles.

"Point well taken, but now if you will excuse me I have to return to my city." Dar says as he walks past her and toward the teleporters.

Seconds later Terry walks out and storms past Diana.

"Just wait a second! We aren't finished talking!" Terry shouts to him.

"You accused my mother of a crime she did not commit. We are finished talking!" Dar says as he looks at Terry.

"I said that it was done in the same fashion she commited her old crimes. I wanted to know if I could speak to her!" Terry shouts.

"Get this through your pointy eared head. You. ARe. Not. Going. NEar. Her! It has taken her years to get past what the original Batman did to her! You are going to leave her alone." Dar says as he looks at Terry.

"Leave her alone or what?" Terry asks.

Dar grabs Terry and shoves him hard against the wall. He pulls the gas mask away from his eyes and one of them glows a dull green. For a second nothing happens, but then Terry seems to become limp and falls to the ground.

"Or I will drain the very life from your body." Dar says as he pulls the mask back over his face.

He turns to Diana and bows in respect.

"Miss, have a nice day." He says as he walks down the hall.

Diana looks where he has gone and then turns toward the second Batman. He slowly gets to his feet and shakes his head.

"Did you get that old man?" Terry asks.

"She's not the one that did it. We still need to speak to her." Bruce says over the communicator.

"How the hell do you expect me to go and talk to her? Her son's a freakin' nut job!" Terry says as he slams a fist against the wall.

"Nut Job or not we need to speak to Selina." Bruce says.

"Alright, alright... I'll see if I can set up a meeting through the foundation or something." Terry says before he looks at Diana.

"Hello Bruce." Diana says straight into Terry's face.

"I'm not..." He begins before she narrows her eyes at him.

"Oh... Yeah I get it." He says before he shuts up.

"Hand her an ear piece." Bruce barks the command.

Terry grumbles and pulls a blue-tooth earbud from the suit and hands it to Diana.

"Princess." Bruce says.

"He acts too much like you." She says as she looks into Terry's face.

"The training does that." Bruce says over the communicator.

"This isn't training Bruce." She says simply.

"No it isn't. What do you need Diana?" Bruce asks.

"To tell you that I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I wasn't here when Alfred passed away, and I'm sorry that I didn't let you explain about Tim. I'm sorry that I fled and went home. Bruce... I don't know what kind of life we could have had, but I wish that I would have stayed and tried. Maybe... Maybe things would have turned out different." She says softly.

"Maybe, but time has moved on Princess." He says his voice almost sounds as if it is breaking up, and Diana understands. She feels the bitter loneliness as well.

"I was a fool Bruce. Did you at least find someone to make you happy?" She asks.

"They all left the mission. And there is only the mission." Bruce says

"Stubborn old man." She says with a smile.

"Arrogant preening Princess." Bruce replies with a soft chuckle.

"I hope to see you one day." She says before she hands the ear bud back to Terry and walks off.

"Okay... What was that all about?" Terry asks.

"None of your business. Now... Get back to Gotham." Bruce orders


	2. The Black Cat

_**The Old Man (Prompt Challenge)  
Chapter 2 'Black Cat'**_

(Blüdhaven – Astrotower Apartments – Penthouse) 

A slender older form moves toward the form a man. Everything about her is drenched in darkness, but somehow the man stops and looks toward her. She knows that there was no sound made, but this man knows her. He knows her every movement. He should since she had been teaching him from the time he could crawl. 

"Drake, how was the league meeting?" The woman asks as she casually sits down near him. 

The man pulls off a long black trench coat soon followed by a fedora, and a gas mask. He fidgets for a moment and walks toward her. One of his eyes now completely black from a contact lens he placed on it. 

"It went well mother. I see that the life energy I've collected has managed to keep you feeling well." He says as he touches her hand. 

She reaches over and turns on a light. Instead of seeing an old woman the man sees his mother as young as she had been when she ran around with the original Batman. 

"One of the benefits of stealing the eye of Isis, but I had no idea that it would absorb itself into me and be passed on to my son." Selina says as she shutters lightly and then looks at Drake with hard eyes. 

"You went near your brother!" She says as her voice becomes harsh. 

"Mother he confronted me. I had no choice. He called you a common criminal!" Drake says in defence. 

"He's your father's son! It shouldn't matter what he says you should know not to go near him! I won't have you stealing away pieces of that man! God knows he's had enough stolen away from him over the years." Selina says her voice becoming soft. 

"Why mother? Why did you separate yourself from him?" Drake asks her looking for some answer. 

"I loved him, I still love him son, but your father… He is one of the most irritable, self righteous, stick up his ass men that I have ever known. It would have never worked out between us. Besides… When he and his princess broke up… If he couldn't have one immortal in his life he couldn't have another." She says as she smiles softly and then looks at him. 

"That's why you wear the gray wig and walk differently when you go out in public." He says as he smiles at her. 

"That is a big part of it yes, but there is another reason. I am considering going out as myself, but not myself. Son… I'm thinking about becoming your sister." She says with a smile that looks like it belongs on the family cat. 

"He would know it's really you." Drake says as becomes more rigid and professional. 

She smiles at him. Seeing him like this reminds her so much of Bruce. In truth it is exactly like Bruce. Drake inherited more than his father's good looks. He got his brilliant mind, and his tendency of stating the obvious. 

"I know he will son, but he won't try to blow it for me either. I'm certain he will ask what I've done and demand to know if I followed another of his old flames to her Lazarus pits. I'll tell him the truth, and most likely he will state that it is too much for anyone to have this much power." She says as she draws a bat symbol on the couch end. 

"He will attempt to remove the eye?" Drake asks. 

"No, your father will leave it alone. At least he will until he is certain that removing it won't kill either of us. But I wouldn't worry about him or your brother." Selina says as she looks at Drake. 

"You are worried over the Amazon." Drake says as he looks at his mother's face. 

"I'm jealous to be sure. She turned the head of the man I love, and now… Now is trying to smite my own son with her charm. I saw the way you stepped in. The way you moved in both purpose and lack of focus. Your father did the same when he would spend any time with her. It may not be her fault, but she has a tendency to make men fall in love with her. Don't follow your father's mistake son. She will only end up breaking your heart." Selina says as she stands and stretches. 

"Mother… Someone stole a jade cat statue last night. Whoever did it wasn't tracked and they managed to get past a hundred million dollar security system without breaking a sweat. On top of that they left the word Meow written in black lipstick on the case that held the cat." Drake says as he looks at her. 

"Really? A jade cat you say?" Selina says with a cat that just ate the canary grin. 

"Mother you didn't." He says as he watches her pull a jade cat from the closet. 

(NeoGotham – Smiling Jack Candy Factory) 

The sounds of someone clicking on a computer can be heard. The factory itself had been shut down even before the incident with the Joker over fifteen years ago. During that time the remains of the candy factory had become a haven for drug trafficking, illegial splicer fighters, and of course a favored Jokerz wannabe hangout. But tonight it was different. Tonight it wasn't a group of kids pretending to be the Joker and his cronies. And it wasn't anyone who was now part tiger fighting anyone who was part wolf. It was a single woman sitting at the computer smiling as she looked at the design left over from the Joker's prank he had planned. It was brilliant, but right now she was going to do something else with it. She was going to unleash the destructive power he had brought down on Gotham those fifteen years ago and bitch slap everyone who needed it. She stops what she's doing for a moment. Her 'babies' had suddenly grown very quiet and she knew what that meant. Standing she grabs a nearby gas gun and turns toward the only opening to the room. 

"I've got to hand it to you. I didn't think that you would be checking into this place right now. It's between the normal occupants." She says as she hears faint foot falls. 

"I have a lot of reasons to check this place." The voice says from the darkness. 

"Yes you do… You where almost killed in here." She says a smile crossing her face. 

"Tell me what you are doing here and I may let you go with just a warning." The voice says with a little humor. 

"That's not likely and you know it Batman." She says as she pulls the trigger on the gun and jumps back. 

"Missed." The voice says. 

"No I didn't." She says as she starts to hear a faint chuckle. 

"Better get some antivenom soon Batman." She says as she walks out. 

"Come here babies!" She shouts. 

Two dogs come running toward her and she turns back to look at the office. She can see the Batman now on the floor laughing uncontrollably. His eyes fix on her and she waves a little jaunty wave at Batman. 

"Hello there!" She says in a menising voice that sounds eerily like the Joker's 

(Inside of the Batcave) 

Bruce watched in horror as Terry lie suffering from Joker Venom. He knew the effects well enough to know what was real and what was fake. This was a perfect reproduction of the original venom, and he couldn't run to Terry's rescue. He looked at the options carefully. Terry had just expressed to ever meta to keep out of Gotham. So calling to the League for help wasn't an option. Terry had never been exposed to Joker venom, and even if the boy was his son he knew that Terry didn't have the self discipline to make himself crawl to the batmobile. 

"Batgirl come in." Bruce growls the command into the comm link. 

"What is it?" A voice says over the line. 

"Batman II has been hurt. Lock onto his location and head directly to him." He states. 

"Wait… he's been hurt?" a confused voice asks before suddenly it fills with purpose. 

"I'm on my way. ETA is six minutes." She says before she shuts off the comm. 

(NeoGotham – Gotham University) 

Maxine Gibson – Saunders took off out of her office after righting a quick out of office note. She looked back at a couple of students who had planned on meeting her. 

_Sorry kids, but duty calls._ She thinks as she exits the campus and heads straight to her cloaking van. 

Max loved the van. She had 'found' reports on Wonder Woman's invisible jet and began working on the van from the original design of the jet itself. Instead of making the van invisible all of the time though she was able to cloak it and drive right up to where she needed to be. No one would be the wiser either. Well almost no one. Terry, her husband Greg Jr, and of course Bruce Wayne knew about the van. As the van drove down the road she activated the auto driver and quickly changed into the Batgirl uniform. The moment she was changed she looked up to see the batmobile a very still Terry on the ground near it. 

"TERRY!" She shouts as she runs toward him and turns him over. 

"Hehee hee hee… Antivenom… cave…" he gasps as he touches her face. 

"Hold on. I'll get you there." She says as she pulls him toward the van. Suddenly a shot rangs out and she falls to the ground. 

"Oh GOD!" She screams as she tries to move and a shooting pain runs though her. 

"I wanted to do that to the real Batgirl so many times… Don't know why I didn't" A horrible voice says as a white faced woman steps out.

"Who… Who are you?" Max asks as she looks at the woman. 

"It is a little hard to tell what with the sex change an all inn't it! Why it's me! Gotham's old Uncle joker! Got to hand it to McGinnis… I thought that my goose was cooked! Hitting me with my own joy buzzer was a stroke of genius, but then… Oh I found out that Harley survived her fall. More to the point… I found out that I was the proud father of a bouncing baby girl. Why the only way I could even think of thanking her… Well was for old Timmy boy to deliver a special present to my daughter while she lay sleeping." Joker chuckles evilly as he walkes toward Max and smiles down at her. 

"What are you doing?" Max screams as she watches the Joker pulls a switch blade from her hip pocket. 

"Why I'm proving a point! Your husband is much like what old Babs' father was. A good man who abides the rules and believes in society. So… What happens when a man who devotes himself to a flawed system sees his own beloved why is hurt, tormented, and struck down? He goes completely bananas! I should have done this to Batman himself years ago, but then I didn't know if he was screwing the cat or the Princess." Joker says as her face becomes serious. 

"Oh well doesn't matter." Joker says as she begins cutting away the Batsuit, but stops for a moment before hand to take a picture of max with the cowl on. 

Seconds later when the cowl is off he takes another picture, and then she cuts the suit off a piece at a time stopping to take a picture. She continues the act until Max is laying there naked with the shredded Batgirl suit around her. 

"Thanks for the memories kids. Now… Jr over there looks like he is going to be gone soon. I would suggest getting him out of here, but then if you could do that you wouldn't be lying around on the job would you?" Joker asks as she breaks out in an evil laugh and stops in front of Terry's face. 

"Bruce, Bruce, Bruce. You should have known how this would turn out. The game never changes, and this is, and always will be between us." She says before she leaves.

(Not far from where Batman II and Batgirl are laying) 

Joker laughs and soon two voices from within her body begins to break out in song as she walks toward the darken night leaving the current batman and batgirl in shambles. 

"See that sun in the morning," Joker sings out in a loud voice into the night. 

"Peeking over the hill?" A female voice sings from the same body 

"I'll bet you're sure it always has and sure it always will." Joker's voice answers as his figure starts to disappear into the shadows 

"That's how I feel about someone," The female voice answers back 

"How somebody feels about me." The Joker sings with an evil voice as his voice begins to sound further away. 

"We're sure we love each other  
That's the way we'll always be." The female voice sings out 

"Oh, we ain't got a barrel of money," Joker's voice rings out further down in the darkness 

"Maybe we're ragged and funny" The female voice sounds lighter and further away. 

"But we'll travel along" Joker's voice now almost sounds like a whisper from the distance he is. 

"Singing a song." The female's voice can barely be heard 

"Side by side." Both of their voices sing before they can't be heard anymore. 

(Inside of the Batcave) 

Bruce looks in horror at what had just happened. He struggles toward the Batwing. He can feel his heart trying to give out with each step, but there is no other choice. No one else needs to be brought into this. The Joker won't stop until he has reclaimed his revenge. And anyone that stands in the way will be killed eventually. Unknown to Bruce a certain Amazon Princess decided to visit Gotham despite the current Batman's warning and picked up a distress beacon from near the candy factory.


	3. The Killing Joke

_**The Old Man  
Chapter 3 "The Killing Joke"**_

(Near the abandoned Candy Factory)

An older jet which was a testament to a hero who had turned the mantle landed nearly the same time as an immortal princess. Before them was two bodies. The first was a wounded woman with shreds of the Batgirl uniform around her and the second was the currently batman his body eerily still. On his face was a trade mark grin left from Joker Venom.

"MCGINNIS!" Bruce roared as he closed the distance between the fallen young man and himself.

Without thinking Bruce injected the antitoxin into the boy and watched for any sign of life. For several agonizing seconds there was nothing. No breathing, no reactions at all, and finally a slight strained chuckle escaped the lips of the current Batman.

"Bruce?" Terry asked through the strained voice.

"I'm here." Bruce said as he knelt down next to the young man who thanks to Waller was his own son.

"He's... hehehe... Alive... The Joker is alive..." Terry said before a soft groan escaped him and he slipped off into unconsciousness.

Diana looked at the woman and covered her as best she could with the cape.

"He's planning something... Said he is going to do Greg what he planned to do to both Barbara and the original commissioner Gordon." Max said as she groaned in pain.

Bruce reached into his pockets and pulled out an old communicator.

"J'onn I need two to transport directly to the med unit." Bruce said.

Before anything else could be said Terry and Max both disappeared in a flash of light. Diana looked at the old man who stood and grabbed at his heart. He pulled out a bottle fished out a pill.

"Bruce..." Diana started toward him, but he held a hand up.

"Princess... Sorry... I really didn't expect you to see me like this." Bruce said.

She looked at him. His hair had turned white from age and his hair line had receded back quite a bit. He looked frail and almost unable to stand there, but his eyes had the same warriors spirit she had fell in love with all of those years ago. She walked toward him and touched his hand.

"Time has not been kind to either of us." She said as she looked into his eyes.

"It has been far kinder to you Princess. I did tell you before. Immortal princess, Rich kid with issues." Bruce said as he smirked lightly and then leaned forward.

"What's wrong?" She asked as she watched him fall to his knees.

"Heart... attack..." he said before he fell flat.

"J'onn, two to transport to medical now!" She shouted as she grabbed Bruce and held on.

Diana watched as the men and women working in the league began working on Bruce. The IVs and the way they used the machines on him only made it seem more like torture than actual medical help. After several minutes they walked away and the lead doctor walked toward her.

"He's going to need a lot of rest. Whatever he was doing was beyond his physical limitations. I don't even know how he managed to pull through that heart attack. If it wasn't that I knew he was a vanilla human then I would swear he was a meta." The doctor said before turning and leaving.

"You have no idea of how many times I would have swore the same thing." Diana said as she walked in and looked down at the frail old man who had taken Bruce's place.

"McGinnis?" Bruce asked as he looked at her.

"He's still in detox, but the said that he will be fine." Diana said took a seat beside him.

"Sanders?" Bruce asked.

"I haven't asked... but I heard some talking... More than likely she's going to paralyzed for the rest of her life, but at least she's alive." Diana said.

"And he's alive... I don't have time to lie here and do nothing." Bruce said as he attempted to sit up.

"Bruce lie down!" Diana shouted at him her blue eyes showing the fury in them.

"You think that you can come back here and act like you still have some power over me?" Bruce asked his eyes looking hard.

"I know I can. What I see in your eyes mirrors what I felt, and to be honest still feel, but right now I want to make sure that you stay alive, and that means bed rest." Diana said as she glared at him.

Bruce grumbled for a few seconds and then settled back down. He reached over to the table and picked up his communicator.

"Huntress come in." He said as he waited for a few minutes.

"Uncle Bruce long time no hear from you. How can I 'Ugh! how do you like that huh? Oh, you want some too!' just a second." he heard the second generation Huntress say.

"Ok... sorry about that had to tie up a few loose ends. Just caught the majority of Innergang. Bye the way Mom wanted to tell you thank you for helping with Dad." The girl said casually.

"Joker is back." Bruce said after a moment.

"Wait... I thought that Ter got him. you know his suto self." The second generation Huntress stated.

"Apparently he planed ahead of time. I need you stay alert and warn District Attorney Sanders." Bruce said.

"You got it uncle Bruce." The girl said before the line went dead.

"Huntress and Question?" Diana asked as she raised an eyebrow.

"She's their fourth child. They made me her godfather for some reason." Bruce said as he looked at Diana.


End file.
